My Battle With the Clintons

4) The dark arts: Some prominent media personalities with experience covering the Clintons in the 1990s told me that their team would have no problem with, say, copying every page of someone’s manuscript, sending it out to reporters ahead of publication, and then depicting it as a right-wing smear job. Funny thing, that exact thing happened with my book, as POLITICO noted.

At first, I resisted the temptation to conclude the Clintons were behind this, but now certain events have led me to believe the Clinton team has had copies of this book for some time. Why might they leak the book early? The best explanation is so that the book’s contents could come out well before publication and the Clintons can then rely on another standard mode of operation—denouncing any unfavorable allegations as “old news.”

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In short, the Clinton team has been true to form so far. And I’m surprised by little of it.

What has surprised me, however, is what the Clintonistas are already doing to their own. In the introduction to my book, I describe what I was told about the Clinton operation. As I put it there, “Nearly everyone in Washington has a Clinton story, or two, or two hundred, but many are afraid to air them publicly or on the record, out of fear of retribution or attack from ruthless Clinton aides and their media allies. … Thus it is pretty clear why less powerful figures inside Clinton, Inc. insist on anonymity. The panic among Clintonites, past and present, is palpable.”

It’s one thing to hear about it in the abstract. It’s quite another to see it in action. To wit:

While I was still reporting on my book, James Carville’s office called, seemingly out of the blue, to grill me on whom I’d already spoken to. I obviously refused to indulge the questioner.

Someone from Bill Clinton’s publisher went to mine, HarperCollins, asking questions about my book and what I might be planning.

I write in my book that “Clintonites are known to scour through magazine articles and books to try to decipher blind quotes and tie them to a suspect.” I believed that was true. But now I know it is. This is in fact happening with my book as I write this, I’ve learned, and has been happening for days, if not weeks. Some are throwing other people to the wolves.

Other Clintonites named in the book are heading for the hills. Some preposterously denied that they ever talked to me. Perhaps it’s buyer’s remorse—but more likely they know the Clinton code of omerta.

I’ve found the task of covering the Clintons fascinating. They’re not exactly the people we see on television. Although many believe Hillary is the cold, calculating and cunning Clinton and Bill is the emotive and gregarious, the exact opposite seems to be a more accurate portrayal of who they really are. As for Chelsea? It would appear from tip to toe she’s daddy’s little girl—and the wizard behind the curtain.

It’s been a wild ride, and I’ve really been intrigued by my encounters with some of the (many) kooky characters in Clinton, Inc.